Frit: A Day in the Life

Dungeons and Drawings, session 2

2016-04-16T00:12:00.000-07:00

The party was drawn in by the wiles of a snake-oil salesman, and victimized by a thief.

We tracked them down. Some of the party stealthed in, but the ranger and I tried a more groundbreaking method.

Raptor-Ranger distracted the enemy via beheading while I mopped up the rest.

Hypno-toad got scammed into buying a PTSD ostrich, while the normal people chipped in to buy a cart and horses.

The bandits holding a duke hostage were fooled by illusory gold. Too bad for them, our weapons were all too real.

Abigail snuck into the hostage room, and panicked the guards, sending them directly into the path of a warhammer fueled people's elbow.

I was immediately ensorcelled by the bandit's mages, but a combination of missile spam and raw destructive power saved the day!

2016-04-06T01:02:00.001-07:00

Boom! And just like that I'm back. I'm going to be uploading some doodles from one of the D&D campaigns I play in so I can link the pictures to a forum, so have fun looking at my dumb drawings!

Here are the first few:

Our party, Moraa the Missile Mage, Baccara the Smashing Sneaker, Abagail the Warty Witch, Gatsu the Whirling Warrior, and Dar the Smelly Shapeshifter.

We've done well our first few battles.

A run-in with a horde of zombies and some really bad luck almost ended the streak of victories.

One more of my character, thematically based on Guts from Berserk.

SPRÜKITS Master Chief Review (Transferred from my other blog)

2016-04-06T00:45:00.002-07:00

Hello, today I'll be reviewing Bandai's SPRÜKITS Master Chief, a level 2 kit with 109 pieces.

I picked him up at a local K-Mart for $22.

The kit comes on five runners, three grey, one green, and a gold one for his face-shield. Construction is divided into his head, his torso, arms, and hips with legs; all instructions are full color illustration with no words.

The build is relatively simple, not requiring glue or paint. There is battle-damaged detail on his chest that could use some paint, but he looks fine without. All the pieces stay together really well, and the joints hold up to moderate posing without coming out of the sockets.

He's decently posable, but has some limits in his hips and forward/upward movement for his head. In order, he has: ball-joint head with a hinge at the collar, Figuarts style shoulders with a hinge forward, ball in cuff with hinge, bicep swivel, single-jointed elbow, and a ball wrist that pulls outward for full range of motion (hands include fists, gun holding hands, and a left splayed open hand). There is a poly-cap waist joint with good forward and back movement and swivel, but it is restricted side-to-side. The hips are Figuarts style as well, with a pull-down hinge-ball-swivel joint. He lacks a thigh swivel, but has nice double knees and somewhat limited ball ankles.

His assault rifle and pistol are nice, but the holding hands come apart in half then are put back together around the weapon. There is an optional peg on his back for the rifle to mount, and a clip for the pistol on his hip.

Chief stands about 5 inches tall. Pictured here next to a Marvel Legends, a McFarlane Chief, RevolMini Solid Snake, a Figma, and a Mega Bloks Spartan. The joints on mine are pretty sturdy. Heavier weapons like the sword below are taxing, but he'll hold a pose just fine.

Overall, SPRÜKITS Master Chief is a decent, if rather easy model kit, and a fun figure. I think he looks pretty good for a basic kit, but the price is a little steep compared to the McFarlane Spartans, which are much more detailed, but lack a lot of this kit's articulation. Putting him together took me around an hour without sanding down any nubs or doing any painting. Master Chief is a great first entry in this line, and I can't wait to try out Bandai's future releases, and maybe some of those higher grade kits they've shown. Thanks for reading my review; see you next time!

Halo 4 Series 1 Elite Zealot

2012-09-21T11:40:00.002-07:00

Finally getting around to reviewing it, the Elite Zealot from the upcoming Halo 4. What can I say, he's pretty badass. He's taller than your average elite, and sporting some pretty sweet armor. It reminds me of a crab's shell, orange and spiky. He's got pretty good articulation, as well, but can't hold his sword worth a damn.

He's got four eyes sculpted into his helmet.

And four mandibles on his jaw.

The arms are articulated at the shoulder, elbow, a swivel and a hinge at the wrist, and his two fingers move. Head moves as well, at the top and bottom of the neck.

The energy sword is pretty awesome, too bad he can barely hold it. None of the other figures from the first series can hold it either.

His legs have weird articulation, but it works, because this Elite can actually stand on its own.

His back is covered in plates of armor, adding to the new organic look of the Covenant troops. The Covenant's going green this time around.

Dat ass.

He's got a peg for his sword on either leg, but it's so big it looks out of place.

Everything about this figure is finely sculpted, especially the armor pieces.

Party time!

Bring it on.

Overall, a really good figure to add to your collection. Look for upcoming reviews of the other three in the series.

If I were a bard in skyrim, ...

2012-07-25T08:11:00.000-07:00

Oh Great Dovah!

Who battles 'mongst the sky,

Hot do your fires burn,

Far-reaching are your cries!

Soar from peak to valley,

Marauding as you please,

Destroying any enemy with the utmost of ease!

The son of man, he stands up,

Bolstered by his cause.

As he inhales sharply,

Dearest Dovah, he does pause;

For this man's peculiar:

He fears no flame or claw.

Dovah's life was forfeit when he shouted, "FUS RO DAH!"

Dragon's Dogma, guys.

2012-07-23T19:06:00.001-07:00

Dragon's Dogma, a recent release by Capcom, had me wowed before it even came out. When I first glimpsed the announcement trailer for this bad boy, I had high hopes. And ever single expectation I had was met ten-fold. DD is a free roaming game with standard story-line (with a few plot-twists) and plenty of random baddies to beat up on.

You start of the game with a prologue/training level, where you play the first "Arisen", a chosen one/dragon-slayer of sorts. After that is character creation, which is very in-depth, going so far as to let you change height, weight, posture, and definition/shape of each major body part. You'll also build your main "Pawn", or sidekick a little ways into the game. The pawn mechanic makes up the online part of the game. Whenever you rest at an inn, your pawn is uploaded to be rented out by other players, scoring you rift crystals to spend on new accessories and skin dyes for your character, and to rent other pawns. Your main pawn will also bring back the knowledge they gained while off questing with strangers.

There are 9 classes in the game, two melee, two ranged, two magic, and three that combine the the rest, such as the Assassin, Magic Knight, and Magic Archer. The three special classes are only available to the player. On top of the staggering amount of creation and build customization, there is a massive amount of different armor in the game.

The main draw of the game is the combat. It's a mix of hack-and-slash and strategy. The game world is full of random small critter, mostly goblins, wolves, harpies, and bandits. In certain areas, however, one is prone to finding larger enemies, bringing to light a interesting mechanic: climbing. The game lets you grab onto larger enemies and shimmy your way to their weak spots, bringing some strategy into these (sometimes excruciatingly) long battles. Unfortunately, when climbing the player has another battle on their hands; the game camera can be very finicky and a lot of the time you'll be trying to figure out which way you're pointing so you can climb up.

Overall, Dragon's Dogma is a really great game with some camera issues and a inclination to destroy players early on. You may have to resort to grinding on little baddies before you can take out your first chimera, and that can get a bit tedious. I recommend the game highly.

Oh, and the copy I got came with a voucher for early access to the demo for Resident Evil 6. Yeah, it's looking really good.

Dragon's Lair DS

2011-02-24T01:22:00.000-08:00

"Dragon's Lair: The fantasy adventure where you become a valiant knight, on a quest to rescue the fair princess from the clutches of an evil dragon. You control the actions of a daring adventurer, finding his way through the castle of a dark wizard, who has enchanted it with treacherous monsters and obstacles. In the mysterious caverns below the castle, your odyssey continues against the awesome forces that oppose your efforts to reach the Dragon's Lair. Lead on, adventurer. Your quest awaits!"

That it is indeed. As the intro cinematic so enthusiastically states, Dragon's Lair puts you into the shoes of Dirk the Daring. Unfortunately, the action is closer to DDR than D&D. The player controls Dirk with the arrow keys and an action button, working off of the sometimes subtle indications in the scenes. The game shifts through the storyline through a set of scenes up to the final, climactic battle to save the princess from the evil dragon. The video is faithfully ported onto the DS, but there's nothing really new from the old arcade versions (game-wise). Once you beat the game, you can go back and watch each scene / the whole thing without interactivity. So no re-playability...

+ Fun Artwork/Video (Disney-esque animation, and a variety of death sequences)
+ Nostalgia

- No replay value

Final Evaluation: A fun distraction that'll last you as long as a bus ride. Not quite worth the 10-15 dollars. Find an emulator online and and play it if you're interested.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded

2011-02-16T22:53:00.000-08:00

Finally, I've mustered the resolve to type up the review for Kingdom Heart Re:Coded. The game itself is definitely playable. I'm not to inured in the storyline of the KH series, so I won't go too in-depth with the story. Basically, you play a boy named Sora, who is tasked with clearing out Jiminy Cricket's journal after it has been possessed by viruses and glitches, represented by an infinite amount of cubes. Story elements are conveyed through either cutscenes (which look fantastic and are fully voiced acted), or slideshow-esque conversations. The action in the game is fairly straight-forward and designed well. Jumping from platforms is annoying sometimes; the auto-jump feature'll frustrate you. The enemies are varied, but they come in waves and battle can become quickly repetitive. There are several types of special moves that come in elemental flavors, which you can edit from the Command Matrix. You level up Sora through microchips dropped in battle or found, which unlock abilities and increase your attributes on the Stat Matrix. There's also a Gear Matrix for equipment (only the keyblade, overclocks and accessories can be changed). The touch screen is mostly used as a map, rendering it essentially superfluous.

+ Looks great, cutscenes, lore bonus for fans of the series
+ Customizable moveset
+ Battle system is fun
+ Disney humor

- Environments are somewhat lackluster
- Platforming is frustrating
- Battle is repetitive
- Boxes, boxes everywhere

Overall, the game would be fairly average on a console like the ps2, but on the DS, it's fresh and rather engrossing once you invest a bit of time into it. The boss levels add some new mechanics, but for the purposes of this review, I played through to the second boss. (The side-scrolling second boss level pissed me off.) Anyways, the game is fun enough, but I think fans of the series will enjoy it much more than I did.

Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light

2011-02-09T22:44:00.000-08:00

4 Heroes of Light is a throwback to the old style of JRPGs that Square whatever became famous by. The premise starts with the "main" main character waking up and reporting for manhood duties or some such. To make a long story short, eventually the four heroes wind up being charged by a crystal presence to defeat an impending darkness. Familiar story, different system. The leveling up/class system in the game is affected by various crowns unlocked thought the events of the game, which can then be upgraded with gems the enemies drop. (Basically, two new hats per boss battle) The game is sometimes unclear when it comes to knowing where to go next, so you might spend a large amount of time soloing the Overworld in search of where to go if you don't talk to everyone and pay attention to what they say. (Also useful for the Storyteller class, which is based on how many people/animals you talk to) 4 Heroes of Light is a cute romp with a classic engine. Fans of old-style JRPGs will enjoy.

+ Fun/cute art design

+ Plenty of classes and gear to choose from

+ Original enemies and plenty of variety in the towns

+ Nostalgia

+ Fire casting kittens. 'nuff said.

- May be difficult at first

- A lot of the game so far is soloing

- Lack of direction is somewhat frustrating. (The answer lies within the trees)

Ghost Trick

2011-02-07T22:29:00.000-08:00

This game - - - For the first time in at least five years, I booted up a game and played it for twelve hours straight.
+ The premise puts you in the boots of a recently deceased amnesiac man (although there are many occasions where they comment that ghosts don't need boots), trying to solve his own murder and has you beating foes with timed wrecking balls and saving innocents from giant chicken dinners.
+ The characters, though sometimes slightly generic and overly dramatic (Mr. Justice Minister) all stand out as individuals that mesh together the story.
+ Animations are fluid and honestly beautiful.
+ The music fits the title well and hardly ever gets old.
+ The puzzles are well designed and flow naturally from start to finish.
- One particular puzzle, Chapter 9, is painful to attempt.

I'm just now about halfway through Chapter 10 as a result of 9's difficulty, but Ghost Trick is managing quite easily to be possibly one of my favourite titles on the DS.

P.S. Ghost Trick and Phoenix Wright were directed by the same guy. woot!